Picked up my first Wedgehead from Allentown this past weekend. I've just started cleaning her up and checking things out and have a couple questions. No schematics or paperwork as yet but it's on the way.

The game is the 1971 Gottlieb 2001. In general, things look very good operationally with just a few small concerns.

1. When all drop targets are completed, should they reset? Mine do not. They stay down during the play of that ball and remain down for the remaining balls. I was expecting them to reset when the ball drained, since all were down, but perhaps that's wrong. I should note that they do reset on game start.
2. Related question - if I knock down only a couple of drop targets in each colored bank, should the bank reset when the ball drains?
3. With all 4 banks down, the special scoring awards the replay as it should. The various kickout holes and outlanes are marked on the playfield as scoring 300 when lit, but seem to actually score more - like 400 or 500. Is that normal? If not, where should I be looking to fix it? Every one does it, so it seems unlikely to be the individual switches.
4. The pop bumpers seem to light quasi-randomly, but looks like it might be on score level somehow. Anyone know how that actually works? I'm sure somebody is going to ask me
5. The left inlane doesn't score - should be an easy switch adjustment I expect.

Thanks guys - granted it is VERY difficult to get those banks down but that seems a bit over-generous. You could just keep collecting replays for 4 more balls if you were lucky to get them down on ball 1. It is what it is though!

I did actually look at some game videos but there was only one I found where all 4 banks went down, and it was on the last ball so I couldn't determine if they should reset once completed. Nice to know they don't. I just re-watched a couple of those videos and the lit kickouts and lit lanes should score only 300 when the banks are down, so there's definitely a problem there.

My 300 point inlane issue is not the switch. It looks to be making contact fine. Going to need the schematic for that one. I also think I just noticed, while playing a game, that the right-most kickout hole always scores 300 and not the 50 it should when unlit. And now, after playing 2 games, it won't start another game. Score reels and drop banks all reset but no ball is getting served. Sigh...

While looking at the inlane switch, I noticed a few cut wires. One pair goes to what looks like it might have been another tilt switch. On a video I spotted a weighted switch on the bottom board with the weight sitting in a hole in the board. It's missing on mine but I can see the screw holes where it would have been. Not too worried about that one.

The other pair of cut wires is apparently from the Hold relay, as it has nothing attached to its coil and is thus inoperative. What's the Hold relay do on these machines?

Thanks!

Thanks guys.

Any suggestions on what to look at for the startup issue? I hit the start button, game reset fine but no ball served. Now hitting the start button does nothing. I'll check the Outhole switch and any obvious relays later but any other thoughts?

The "no ball served" issue did turn out to be the free play business. It had been clipped together with an alligator clip that had come off. Rather than the clip, I just adjusted the switch closed at zero credits. That fixed it.

It's now having an issue where at random times during gameplay, it will basically shut off. GI is still on but playfield power goes off, as in no flippers, no pops, no scoring etc. Looks and acts like a Tilt but there's no tilt light showing. That's tonight's job...

Thanks for all the help and advice!

Mine was not the $1700 restored one nor the improperly painted one. I only saw 3 but could certainly have missed one.

I'll have to watch for the Game Over light. And yes, I'll be fixing the Hold relay. I suspect the coil is bad and they bypassed it rather than fix it but I'll ohm it out later to be sure.

Yeah, the switches are bent closed and wires to the Hold coil are both clipped out. Don't have the schematic yet but I don't really like the idea of a Make-Break switch with both sides made.

Just did a bit of testing and the game tilts normally if I knock the bob, so the lights and such are good. I also had the problem occur again and the machine did not tilt. It went to game over and lit a match digit but I still had the last ball in the plunger lane.

Had a chance to catch another failure tonight. The game went to game over with the ball in the plunger lane. The ball count unit was not reset, still sitting on Ball 5 position. Launched the ball and the playfield was dead. Once the ball hit the outhole, a new game could be started normally.

Played a few more games and most were fine. When it did screw up it was almost always after serving ball 5 to the shooter lane. It would then skip immediately to Game Over. On 2 occasions, it did the same thing but when serving ball 4. Again, immediately to Game Over.

I'm going to pull the playfield later today and give all the relays a good close look. I'm pretty sure it has to be there since it does work sometimes.

Thanks Boatcat. I did notice that on a couple occasions when the machine fouled up and wondered what the heck was going on. Later I was watching the ball count unit and I could see it step up to the 1 position when the ball was served. I figured it out about then.

Not declaring victory quite yet but I've played a number of games tonight with no premature Game Over issues. I went through the machine closely tonight and tweaked a number of switches on the Game Over and Tilt relays, made sure the disconnected Hold relay had its switches set correctly, re-gapped the outhole switch to be a bit wider, checked the trough switch, which looked OK, and cleaned and adjusted the Ball Count unit. Also found one switch in the green drop target bank that was staying closed all the time, so fixed that also.

Next big thing to troubleshoot is the 300 point scoring. All targets and switches score normally when unlit except for the center hole at the top. It should score 300 and always scores 400. In a similar way, any of the other holes or rollover switches which are supposed to give 300 when lit also give 400. Need to look at the schematic and see what's what but I may just give the 300 Point Relay a poke and see what it does by itself to start.

All my parts have arrived so I've got some work ahead of me now - new pop bumper assemblies and 20 new drop targets to put in. That should be fun!

Did a bit more troubleshooting on the scoring issue. Starting a game and then hitting the 300 point relay manually scores 400 points every time. The score motor cam that drives the scoring seems to be on 1A, and that wheel has 5 teeth on it every 120 degrees. I got to pondering whether the game should be turning off the circuit after 3 pulses via another switch so I started looking at the timing diagram. Correct me if I am wrong, but the black blocks on the diagram indicate switch closure time and dwell right?

If so, and making the assumption that the timing diagram on the schematic is correct, I think mine is bugged. The diagram shows 1C activating immediately at the start of a 120 degree cycle. On mine, however, 4A comes in first. I'm wondering if that A cam isn't off by a tooth or two.

Are these score motor cams keyed to the motor shaft in any way to keep them in time, or could they have slipped and/or been assembled wrong?

You, sir, are the man! Sure enough, manually moving the score motor slowly revealed that 1B was opening just after the 4th pulse on 1A. I adjusted 1B to open just a bit sooner and problem solved! Thank you! And thanks to everyone who has contributed valuable knowledge to the thread. I have to admit that I'm pleased that the idea it might be score motor timing came to me after looking at the schematics - means I'm learning something!

Time now to start the playfield machinery refurbs.

Not yet - little too much to do to it yet. I have all new pops for it and 20 new drop targets to install. The playfield needs a good strip and clean and I may try airbrushing some of those worn areas.